


The Incident

by Juniperboy



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Azula - Freeform, F/F, Flashback, Happy Azula (Avatar), M/M, Mai - Freeform, Minor Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Modern AU, Sokka - Freeform, Ty Lee - Freeform, Uncle Iroh - Freeform, Zuko - Freeform, zukka - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:41:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26223568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juniperboy/pseuds/Juniperboy
Summary: Sokka and Zuko have an announcement for Azula, but aren't sure how she'll take it. (Modern!AU)
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 160





	The Incident

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wax_castle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wax_castle/gifts).



> this was for the rat gang fic exchange lol

It began four years ago. 

Scratch that; it began the day she was born.

Her father always expected her to be better than Zuko. Have better grades, be more physically capable than him, be his worst enemy. 

She obeyed his rules and got the grades, played the part, danced the dance for just a shred of her father’s love. He gave it out sparsely, only to motivate her to do better or to reward her for beating Zuko yet again. 

It wasn’t until two years ago, when CPS finally took them away from Ozai, that she realized none of that was normal.

She didn’t want to talk to the therapist at first. There was some part of her that still wanted to cling to the idea of being her father’s perfect little girl, of earning his unending love. 

That was the end goal, right? Love?

When she found out that Ozai was paying for child support, and in a sense paying for her therapy, she finally agreed to sit down and talk.

At least, that’s how she rationalized “betraying” her father.

At first, she gave the therapist, an older man named Aiko, bare-bones details. Her name, age, and sparse information about her strained relationship with her mother. It was nothing new, nothing she hadn’t told close friends. 

Aiko caught on to the fact that she was holding back. One day, he asked her about her relationship with Ozai. 

“He’s my father and the former mayor, who wouldn’t look up to him?” She tried to brush off his imploring questions. 

But she realized how shitty she felt hiding the truth. 

Aiko reminded her of her uncle, whom she and Zuko now lived with. She had seen how Zuko’s relationship with Iroh had transformed him…

Maybe she wanted someone like that for herself. 

One day, when the images of her mother and the bellowings of her father weren’t so consuming, she finally started to talk. 

“I don’t think I’ve been quite honest with you. You see, my relationship with my father isn’t as...simple as you may think.”

The moment Azula decided to admit what she had been through was the happiest moment of her life. 

“I wouldn’t call it trauma, really...he simply had strict rules, is all.”

“If a child were to get whipped for stepping out of place, would you consider that traumatic?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so.”

“Imagine that the whips are Ozai’s words. They’re equally as harmful, equally as traumatizing.” 

A habit began to form: Azula would walk into every session believing that she had no more to say, that she was fully healed, and then she would walk out having dozens more memories and questions to share with Aiko.

Occasionally, she’d walk out sobbing like a child.

One day, it hit her that fully healing isn’t something that happens over the course of one session. Healing was going to be a lifelong battle for her, and she was ready to face the challenge head-on.

It was the first challenge she was willing to face for her own sake, not for Ozai’s or anyone else’s. 

“Zu, Uncle, I’m home!” Azula called. She threw the car keys on the kitchen counter and basked in the scene that awaited her: hot tea, brewed fresh by Iroh, and her brother’s laughter sounding from another room. 

Azula felt her chest swell with happiness at the sound of it. It used to be a rarity to hear Zuko laugh, but recently he always seemed to be laughing about one thing or another, usually while talking to one of his friends from high school.

_ One of his friends must be visiting from college,  _ Azula thought. Zuko had opted to take a few years off to help Iroh with his tea shop. He made decent money and wanted to save up to pay for college on his own. 

“Ah, Azula, my girl!” Iroh embraced her as she walked in. “How was your day?”

“Oh, the same as usual. Final exams, vapid bitches at school, you know. High school.” Azula tried not to talk about her therapy sessions around Iroh. She figured he had enough on his plate. 

Iroh nodded before ushering her to sit at the table.    
“Listen, there is something Zuko and I both want to...talk to you about.” Iroh handed her a cup of tea.

That usually meant very good news or very bad news...Azula took a sip, scalding her tongue in the process, and decided not to try and figure out which it was. 

“Zuzu isn’t pregnant, is he?” Azula smiled at her own joke. 

Iroh chuckled. “No, thankfully not yet. However, he does have an, ah, announcement…”

Azula cocked her head. Did he get someone pregnant? 

Zuko cautiously opened the kitchen door, his arm slung around a sheepish Sokka. 

Sokka had been Zuko’s friend for as long as Azula could remember. After their mothers died, they attended group counseling together, and once they figured out that they lived relatively close to each other, the rest was history. 

“Hey, ‘La!” Sokka grinned. Sokka knew she hated that nickname, that’s why he used it so often. 

“So is Sokka moving in with us? That’s basically the same as Zuko having a child. We’ll have to feed you, bathe you--”   
“Hey!” Sokka stuck his tongue out at Azula, which she returned gladly. 

“No, uh--” Zuko grinned at Sokka, “Sokka and I are dating. We have been for a while, we just, uh, didn’t know how to tell you...”

“Oh.” Azula felt a whirlwind of emotions. Was he moving out? How long had this been going on? Why did he feel the need to hide this from her?

Well, she already knew the answer to that last question.

\---

The Incident had happened on the day of Azula’s thirteenth birthday. She had been walking down the hall, accepting the fearful “happy birthday”s that people threw her way. She had stopped outside of her history classroom and leaned against the doorframe. Mai and Ty Lee were supposed to meet her there any minute. Where were they?

Suddenly, they came rushing up, side by side, hand in hand. That was odd. They never seemed to be overly affectionate before, why were they starting now? 

Before Azula could even open her mouth to ask, Ty Lee jumped in. 

“Happy birthday, Azula! We, uh, have some news for you…”

Azula raised an eyebrow. News? On her birthday? This had to be good. 

“We know it’s not the best time, but summer break is coming up soon so we didn’t know when else we could tell you,” Mai explained. “Ty Lee and I are dating.”

What?

Her and Ty Lee...were what?

It took Azula a moment to process this information. She’d never met anyone who was openly gay before, and she sure as hell didn’t expect her friends to be. And to be dating each other? 

“Are you yanking my chain? Is this-is this some sort of sick plot to steal all of the attention away from me?” Azula couldn’t keep the snarl out of her voice. “I won’t have it. You know what my father thinks.” Of course. Her father, the openly homophobic mayor of their city. Lots of people hated him, but they made sure to at least try and hide their hate as not to be punished.

“You’re not your father, Azula. We’re your best friends, and we really thought that you’d be able to accept us ...” Mai put an arm around Ty Lee and exchanged a glance with her before continuing. “...but, if you can’t, then I don’t think we can be around you.”

She never realized that she had agreed with Father’s politics until that moment. It made sense, of course. She was like him in every way, and he seemed to have shaped her thinking more than anyone else had. Something about them dating felt...wrong. She couldn’t put a finger on it. There had to be a reason why she felt this was so off, right? Was that reason  _ really _ homophobia?

Azula shook her head and began to raise her voice. “Fine! You two homos live it up for all I care! I’ll be just fine without you! You know I always have been, and when I take over as mayor after Father, you’ll be sorry you ever left me!”

Mai simply shook her head as they began to walk away. Azula’s hearing had always been impeccable; it was something her father had always praised her for. Though she wished she hadn’t heard what the two girls were saying as they strolled further and further down the hallway. 

“Do you really think she’ll be fine without us? I thought she’d at least try and be nicer about this…”

“Of course she won’t be fine, Ty. Without us, she doesn’t have anyone. Trust me, she won’t hurt us anymore.”

\---

When Azula had brought the incident up with her therapist, Aiko had seemed very interested in it. He wanted to know the smallest of details, and exactly what had been going through her head that day.

“...well, I was wondering why they had betrayed me.”

“Why did you consider your two friends dating a betrayal? They seemed happy, correct?”   
“I mean yes, but…” Azula had been seeing Aiko for some time now, and even though it seemed to get easier to talk to him each week, sometimes the words still got stuck in her throat. “...it means they’re closer to each other than they are to me.”

Aiko nodded. “So you pushed them away before they had the chance to push you away.”

Wait. What? She’d just figured that she had been homophobic, not insecure. 

“You don’t think I’m homophobic?” 

“Well, would you have done the same if Mai had happened to be a man?”

Well, that wasn’t too hard to imagine. She already bottled up her emotions as though she were one. “I believe so, yes.”

“Then, congratulations Azula, you’re not homophobic.” Aiko broke into a cheeky grin, “though, we should work on your ways of coping with jealousy.”

\---

Gossip traveled fast, and by that next week, everyone in her school knew about The Incident. Azula never told anyone about her session with Aiko because of her own pride. She could never admit that she was insecure; it was easier to let everyone believe that she was just the homophobic daughter of the homophobic mayor. Even when she tried to patch things up with Mai and Ty Le, they’d refused her apology and didn’t believe her explanation. Which she deserved, she knew that much. She eventually came to the conclusion that the two were better off without her, free from her bossiness and insults.

Now, Zuko and Sokka stood staring at her, their faces pensive. Zuko had sneakily grabbed Sokka’s hand, and Azula had to stop herself from flashing back to her thirteenth birthday. 

_ Breathe. What am I feeling?  _ Azula began to hone in on her feelings, and surprisingly, she felt...happiness. 

Her stupid brother had finally found someone to love and cherish, and that person happened to love him back! She did feel that pang of jealousy in the back of her mind, but she knew that it wasn’t because she was afraid he was going to abandon her. If anything, she was jealous that he had started dating someone before she did. 

Azula stood up from the table and grabbed Zuko and Sokka, pulling them into a giant hug. She rarely gave out hugs; she preferred friendly punches or kicks under the table. This, however, called for a special measure. 

When the boys wrapped their hands around her back, Azula began to tear up. 

“I’m so, so happy for you two.”


End file.
